How to track down mixed content or insecure content

If you do not see the green lock in your browser address bar, you still have mixed content. It is very important that this is fixed, because browsers will throw all sorts of warnings at users, who might get scared.

Whoops: this site has mixed content.

The green lock, this site is secure, yeah!

What is mixed content?

Your website consists of HTML, images, javascript and CSS files. When your site is loaded in the browser, the HTML that is loaded will contain links to the images, javascripts and CSS files, the resources of your website. If your HTML is loaded over https, and your resources load (partly) over http, the content is “mixed”. There can also be other causes: an image that loads over https, but gets redirected to http for example. Finding these insecure resources in the browser is usually not so difficult. Finding which plugin or which file in your theme uses the image is often the hard part.

How can I fix the mixed content on my WordPress website?

The built in mixed content fixer in Really Simple SSL fixes all mixed content in the HTML of your site. But there are some types of mixed content that cannot be fixed dynamically. These will need to be fixed either manually, or by Really Simple SSL pro. This because the links are hardcoded in (css or javascript) files on your site, or because they’re hardcoded in files on other domains, or simply because the requested domain does not have an SSL certificate.

If the mixed content fixer is active, but you still don’t have the green lock, you have a type of mixed content that can’t be fixed automatically:

Http links in stylesheets or javascript files Some .css or .js files contain hard coded http links, which will cause mixed content warnings. For example if you use a theme that generates custom css with hardcoded http links, this will cause mixed content warnings.

Hot linked imagesIf you have embedded an image on your domain, domain-1.com and the URL to that image is domain-2.com, and domain-2 does not have an SSL certificate, this image will be blocked by the browser.

http links in your site to javascript files or stylesheets on other domains These will get fixed by Really Simple SSL, but again, if the remote domain does not have an SSL certificate, these files can’t get loaded over https.

Included js or css files on other domains, and this domain does not have an SSL certificateIf you include files from another domain, this domain also needs to have an SSL certificate.

http links in css or js files on other domainsIf the remote files can get loaded over https, but contain hardcoded http links (which happens a lot) mixed content warnings are the result.

These links can be located in theme files, plugins, or maybe in a widget you inserted on your site. Sometimes images are inserted from another website with that website’s URL, which won’t work anymore if that URL can’t load on SSL.

To find these issues, you might consider buying the Really Simple SSL pro plugin, which scans your entire site for all possible issues in files and database, and creates a list of issues to fix and when possible it offers a “fix” option. If not, you’ll get instructions how to fix it. For example, the plugin can’t fix a hot linked image if the image doesn’t exist, or if the remove server blocks the downloading. Besides this, you get added options that improve your security, like HTTP Strict Transport Security, the preload list, a certificate expiration warning option, mixed content fixer for the admin, and more.

Right click on your website. A drop down will appear, with an option “inspect element”

When you click this option “inspect element”, part of your browser changes into a development screen:

To enter the console, simply click “console”. Then you will see the mixed content warnings, like:

Mixed Content: The page at ‘https://domain.com’ was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure image ‘http://domain.com/…’. This content should also be served over HTTPS.

Now we are getting somewhere! In the red characters, you will find some links. These links are the cause of your frustrations. How to fix them depends on your theme, plugins, etc.

First we will check if the problematic link is located in the websource, or in some other file, .js or .css for example. In most cases the mixed content fixer in Really Simple SSL will fix all issues in your HTML, so we can expect most issues to be in the resources. To check if this is the case, we go back to the normal website, right click, and now select “view source”

If we click “view source”, we now see the html code of the page. Do a search (ctrl F or cmd F) on the insecure link you found in the previous steps.

If the link is not in the source, it is probably located in a .css or .js file, generated by a plugin or your theme. Check all your plugins, re-save the options, and do the same with your theme.

To find mixed content in your css or js, you can also download these files from your server, do a search on the insecure URL, and replace any http links you might find.

Of course, you can also save yourself some time and buy the premium plugin, which offers the scan which does all this automatically, and offers secure cookie setting, HSTS, SSL expiration warning, and includes premium support as well.

ssl_error_bad_cert_domain the ssl_error_bad_cert_domain error is shown when the domain name on the certificate doesn’t match the domain of your site. A lot of hosting providers will have a default SSL...

Rogier Lankhorst

Mark L

11 Mar, 2017, 8:49 pm

Hi, I recently moved my site to SSL and use your plugin to activate it. On my site I display external rss feeds from secured and non-secured websites (news agregator). Those feeds from non-secured sources are not displaying images on my secured site and I see these errors in the chrome console:

Rogier Lankhorst

11 Mar, 2017, 11:20 pm

This is correct behavior. The insecure images won’t get loaded. The only solution is to disable the mixed content fixer for those url’s, but I would advise against that: users would get security warnings on your homepage if insecure images are loaded. So if you are looking to hotlink images from a http domain on your site without users getting mixed content/security warnings: that’s not possible .You have to choose: images, or a green lock.

Mark L

Art

2 Jun, 2017, 11:13 pm

Hey this is great. However, I found out in the console that 2 pictures on my website are causing this error. I use those pictures as my background pictures. So how do I solve this now? Do I have to remove the pictures ? how do I convert them into https now?

Rogier Lankhorst

3 Jun, 2017, 7:08 am

You’ll need to find where these images are requested, probably in a css file. Such a css file might be generated by your theme. If you find the link to those images, change it to https. If you can’t find the link yourself, you can use the scan in the pro plugin.

Rogier Lankhorst

Paweł

31 Jul, 2017, 5:05 pm

Hi Rogier,

Thank you.

That’s correct, my server administrator have just informed me about that but now everything should be fine with certificate. Nonetheless, there’s still problem with mixed content. Google Chrome console says that because of the hero image.

Rogier Lankhorst

Anmol Farmah

14 Aug, 2017, 9:38 pm

Hi I did observe mixed contents and due to this issue images are not loading properly but when I check source link it does show https which in my understanding should be fine, because if I see these links with http instead https then I see an issue. Please help me understand and fix this issue.

Mark Wolters

15 Aug, 2017, 8:48 am

Hi Anmol,

although the link is https:// the images are not available because the website you are trying to load them from has an invalid certificate. Because of this the images refuse to load and therefore don’t show up on your website. The easiest solution would be to host these images on your own website. Then they are available over https:// and won’t cause any errors.

Paul Je

Mark Wolters

15 Aug, 2017, 5:53 pm

Hi Paul,

SSL on your site is not working because the website is using a self-signed certificate. For a certificate to be valid, it needs to be issued by a trusted certificate authority like Comodo or Let’s Encrypt. This is something your hoster could help you with.

Mark Wolters

18 Sep, 2017, 8:22 am

Hi,

this is because the certificate you are using is self-signed. For an SSL certificate to be valid it needs to be issued by a trusted certificate authority like Comodo or Let’s Encrypt. Once you fix this the site will be available over https://. This is something your hosting provider can help you with. For more information about your certificate see: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=sskbuildcon.co&latest.

goldtour

Mark Wolters

18 Oct, 2017, 8:07 am

Hi,

it seems there is an issue with your certificate. I’ve done a test over at https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=turkeygoldtour.com&ignoreMismatch=on&latest which returned that the certificate your site uses is self-signed. For a certificate to be valid, it needs to be issued by a trusted certificate authority like Comodo or Let’s Encrypt. You can fix this by getting a certificate from a certified authority, this is something your hosting provider can help you with. Once a valid certificate is installed, Really Simple SSL can help you migrate your site to SSL.

Maria

24 Oct, 2017, 9:41 am

Hi Mark, Thank you for posting this! I’m trying to solve the issue by fixing the js file which seems to be giving the errors but there I fixed all the http I could find to https and nothing has changed. It still says I have 3 insecure images.. Any suggestions? jquery.js:4 Mixed Content: The page at ‘https://melbourne.lanewaylearning.com/’ was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure image ‘http://melbourne.lanewaylearning.com/wp-content/themes/superspark/images/icon/dark/top-search-button.png’. This content should also be served over HTTPS.https://melbourne.lanewaylearning.com/ Thank you

In these cases you can find the origin of the image by pressing option+command+F on mac or ctrl+shift+F on windows to open the ‘advanced’ search and paste the mixed content URL, in most cases this will return the origin.

Mark Wolters

4 Jan, 2018, 4:08 pm

Hi,

do you still experience this issue? I’ve checked your site and the marker data-rsssl=1 which is inserted when the mixed content fixer is active is now visible in the page source, it could be possible you were looking at a cached version of the page.

danny kim

Mark Wolters

5 Mar, 2018, 9:20 am

Hi,

I’m currently seeing a maintenance page on the website the license is activated on. If this page is generated by another plugin, it can be the ‘data-rsssl=1’ marker isn’t added to the page source. To check if the marker is present, you can right click on your website and click ‘View page source’. That will show the HTML of the page, then you can search for data-rsssl=1.

If the mixed content fixer isn’t detected, but there is no mixed content on the website then you can safely ignore the warning.

Luca Lo Iacono

22 Apr, 2018, 11:12 am

Hey there!https://www.doyouspeakpolyglot.com/ could you please mine? I did check wqith ssllabs.com and it gets 4 A’s. Also, I can find 2 errors on the console, the “data-rsssl=1” is active and present. I can find the errors but I don’t quite get it how to fix it…

jetpack.css Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found)

social-icons.css Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found)

Rogier Lankhorst

22 Apr, 2018, 2:18 pm

Hi Luca, If you get 404 (not found) errors on css files, you might need to check if they’re actually there, or if they’re blocked by hot link protection on your server. For information on hot link protection, you can contact your hosting company.

edd_user_2743058

3 Jul, 2018, 8:32 pm

Hello, I am having issues as well. I have followed all instructions on my site: cetaceanecology.com – my SSL certificate has an A rating, the mixed content code is present, but when I check the console it shows no errors. Still, I get the “This connection is not private” error. I just installed WP and have done nothing else at all with the site. I have another site (consciousscientists.com) that has no issues and I did all things just the same with this site, but for some reason, nothing seems to be working. What can I do? I have tried switching themes in case it’s the pictures but nothing helps. Your support is appreciated. Cheers, -Y

edd_user_2743058

bbaltz

23 Jul, 2018, 8:39 pm

I have followed all the guides, including WooCommerce’s guide, to converting http to https. My site get’s an A, cert if working and live. I’ve tried everything to port over all the images from my http site, and for the life of me cannot get them to load on the https site. I’ve tried find/replace, etc etc etc. Any help would be much appreciated.

As far as I can tell, all errors are in the form of ‘failed to load resource, 403’ error. I understand they are still referencing the http location from before, but if someone could give me details on fixing each one, I’d be really grateful. Even if it’s manually.

Rogier Lankhorst

23 Jul, 2018, 8:44 pm

Hi, these images do not load from an http location: the URL’s are all with https. But when I load an image directly in the browser, either with http or https, http://agaperoasting.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/cropped-small-bean-32×32.jpg, I still get a 403 forbidden. This means there is a configuration issue on the server. It looks like the entire uploads folder is locked for access. I would check your .htaccess file, and aks your hosting company if they know anything about this.

bbaltz

24 Jul, 2018, 1:01 am

Thank you for the prompt reply. You were correct in that it was an .htaccess file error. I reached out to hostgator, and received the following reply:

The 403 errors are being caused by invalid code in the sites .htaccess file. The following block of code is resposible and has been commented out but please be aware that we offer very little support with custom htaccess rules.

Ayman

Mark Wolters

1 Aug, 2018, 10:59 am

Hi Ayman,

this seems to be an error in the ScrollReveal Javascript library, this won’t cause any mixed content on your site. You can contact the developer of the library to get more information about the errors.

uditi bareja

6 Aug, 2018, 5:30 am

Hi I am having difficulty figuring out where exactly is the image that causes the mixed content located. I followed the steps above but turns out it is probably in the css or js code. How do I find this out in order to replace it?

Mark Wolters

6 Aug, 2018, 8:26 am

Hi,

when you are in the developers console, you can copy and paste the link that’s causing the mixed content in the advanced search, this can be opened (on a mac) by pressing alt+cmd+f. If the link is in a .css file, the advanced search will reveal it. If you can provide me with your site address I can check this for you.

uditi bareja

6 Aug, 2018, 10:48 am

Hi Mark, thanks a lot for your reply. I managed to locate it using your method at style.css file. Funny thing is, when I go to my style.css file in wordpress I cannot find it so I can’t locate it. My website is nuvistastech.com.

Usman Shahid

25 Oct, 2018, 5:42 am

I have a issue with Canadianliquidation.com, I have error “The mixed content fixer is active, but was not detected on the frontpage. Please follow these steps to check if the mixed content fixer is working. Instructions ”

success SSL is enabled on your site. error The mixed content fixer is active, but was not detected on the frontpage. Please follow these steps to check if the mixed content fixer is working. Instructions success An SSL certificate was detected on your site. success 301 redirect to https set: WordPress redirect warning HTTP Strict Transport Security is not enabled. To enable, get Premium warning Secure cookie settings not enabled. To enable, get Premium

Still having issues with mixed content? Check out Premium, which includes an extensive scan and premium support. Learn more

Mark Wolters

25 Oct, 2018, 8:29 am

Hi Usman,

the site uses a self-signed certificate (see https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=canadianliquidation.com&latest=yes). For a certificate to be valid, it needs to be issued by a certified certificate authority like Comodo or Let’s Encrypt. Really Simple SSL cannot install or obtain an SSL certificate for you. We recommend to get a certificate at your hosting provider, they can easily install a certificate for you. Once the certificate has been installed, Really Simple SSL will help to convert your site to SSL.

lorenafox

28 Nov, 2018, 8:34 am

Hi Mark, I am getting the insecure image error, but that image doesn’t exist in my Media Library. Checking the Console, the image comes up as a 404. Suggestions on how to fix this? Thank you so much! Site is: https://lorenafox.com/

Mixed Content: The page at ‘https://lorenafox.com/lorenafox/’ was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure image ‘http://lorenafox.com/lorenafox/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/foxes-background-5.jpg’. This content should also be served over HTTPS. /lorenafox/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/foxes-background-5.jpg:1 Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found)